  About Us
Welcome to the
official Anime Corner 'About Us' page for those of you that did not know enough
already. This page was 4 years in the making, and we have compiled corporate
information, and brief history of the Anime Corner, and more interesting
information to help feed your curiosity about what makes the Anime Corner
tick... -_^
Of course, as
always, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail
us!
Enjoy your
Anime!!
Our
Mission:
The Anime Corner
Store's mission is simple - to be the largest, best source for Japanese Anime in
the world!
 Our
goal is to be the leading retailer in the Anime industry by having the highest
level of customer satisfaction, the largest selection of products, competitive
prices, the fastest shipping, and second to none customer service. We truly are
the original online Anime Superstore, run by fans, for fans. (Customer
Testimonials)
Company
Profile
  Established
in 1997 originally as a fan site, the Anime Corner quickly grew into one of the
finest and largest online retailers of anime and manga related products. The
Anime Corner Store® is now recognized worldwide as a leading, customer
friendly, Anime retailer - a place that fans can obtain the latest Anime and
Manga products at the most competitive prices, and still be backed up by the
fastest delivery and best customer service in the industry.
Over the years, the Anime
Corner® has grown into a diverse, challenging, and exciting enterprise.
Operations are managed daily from our 14,000 square foot distribution center in Winchester, Virginia. From here, we ship hundreds of orders all over the world
each week. No matter our size and growth, however, our priorities and commitment
will always remain to our customers and to the Anime community which we serve
and are proud to be a part of.
Robert's
Anime Corner Store - An Intimate History
Back in 1998 when
Robert (aka Bob) was working as an information systems consultant and his wife Jamie
(affectionately known as 'J' around the office) was working for an Aerospace
company, they were both die hard Anime fans, but there was no place local to
them that sold Anime (they didn't even have a local comic book shop), and there
were only a couple of places online at that had any kind of real selection that
you could buy licensed Anime from.
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large customers of Anime Nation, they knew first-hand that the few
online Anime stores at the time had frustrating customer service, scant
inventory (if at all), terrible web sites, and just basically didn't do
a very good job selling Anime despite whatever claims they might make to
the contrary. More than that, the prices they charged were very high.
Bob had been involved in several early e-commerce projects, and had been
wanting to put his own online store together. Bob and Jamie both knew
the budding Anime industry desperately needed reliable, quality
distribution at the retail level to help grow the genre, and that they
could do a much better job than the other Anime retailers that existed at
the time while pursuing a career doing something that they loved. It all fell together. Bob and Jamie left their day jobs and
invested all of their time and savings into the new anime business, and
Robert's Anime Corner Store® was born in the summer of 1999 after
several months of planning and development. Their commitment to excellence can still be seen in every part of the Anime Corner, of which they are still very actively involved today. |
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About the Store Front - We built a very easy
to use and navigate retail website as an extension of the fan-site Bob already
had called Robert's Anime Corner® (hence the name Robert's Anime Corner
Store®, if anyone is wondering how our store's name came to be). Our goal was
to become the #1 Anime retailer on the web by offering:
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The very best
customer service possible.
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Ultra fast
shipping.
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All the latest
Anime available, including Manga, Music, Books, Toys, Cels, etc.
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Excellent fill
ratios on orders by maintaining every item we sell in our own stocking
warehouse. Trust me, we obsess over this day and night!
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And finally the
lowest possible everyday prices without the tricks and gimmicks other
retailers rely on.
 In
the beginning we carried, in stock, about 400 Anime items, including anime cels and the few
licensed VHS videos and English translated manga that were available back then,
but after we officially opened in Oct of 1999, we quickly grew to over 2,600
items after only 1 year, and over 5,000 items in only 2 years. Today we carry in
stock over 12,000 Anime items, and the list grows almost daily. We quickly found
that we outgrew the small office space we had originally leased in Harpers Ferry
WV, so in late 2000 we purchased a large warehouse/office building closer to the
city in Ranson, WV and moved our corporate headquarters and fulfillment team
into it in early 2001. After 5 years even our warehouse in Ranson, WV proved inadequate for our needs, so in late 2006 we relocated again into our current state of the art 14,000 sqr foot fulfillment center located in Winchester, VA.
Since we began over 9 years ago, we've grown our Anime selection to over 14,000 items which we keep in stock right here in our
own warehouse, and despite
the incredible growth we've seen as a company, we've still held firmly to the
fundamental principals that we were originally founded on, and that is what our
fellow fans and customers in the Anime community have responded to.
Print
Advertising
We currently
advertise across a broad spectrum of Anime and Gaming related publications.
Unlike other companies, each one of our ads is an original hand made work of
Anime art, that requires many weeks of planning and development from initial
concept to final drawing. Each of our ads tells a story, and we are very proud
of them! Here are a few examples:
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'Girls of
the Anime Corner' Full Page Ad
w/ Momo, Aya, Rinda, Raina, & Noemi
in a Nice Group Shot Outside of Our HQ
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'Happy
Summer Days' Full Page Ad
w/ Noemi, Raina, & Mai
Enjoying a Day at the Beach
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'Okinawan'
Full Page Ad
w/ Noemi, Meriko, and Kisara
Outside of a Shrine in Okinawa, Japan
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'St.
Noemi' Full Page Holiday Ad
w/ Noemi Delivering Presents to
Miharu and Ataru, Two Aspiring Otakus
in a Norman Rockwell inspired Theme |
'Ranshin
Kendo Dojo' Full Page Ad
w/ Noemi, Asagi, & Himiko (Sports Themed)
The RACS Kendo Team Shot Inside
of Our Company Sponsored Dojo |
'Cute on
Campus' Full Page Ad
w/ Noemi, Harumi, & Uehara
Some of Our Girls Attend Junior College
in the Afternoon after Work |
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'Anime
Corner Christmas' Full Page Holiday Ad
Showing What Happens to Noemi when
Miharu and Ataru are Happy to See Her! |
'Goth
Polymer Project' Full Page Ad
w/ Noemi, Sonoko, & Remei
This more serious work depicts Noemi and
and her companions during a Vampire hunt.
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'Horror of Macabre Manor' Full Page Ad
w/ Jun & Noemi
This work has Noemi and Jun in a
'Resident Evil' style theme. |
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'Shotoken
Arts' Full Page Ad
w/ Noemi, Miyu, & Yukiko
This work has Noemi Miyu, & Yukiko in a
'Martial
Arts' style theme. |
'Chorale
Lacrimosis' Full Page Ad
Featuering Noemi as the
Fallen Angel
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Ohayo Kangofu (Nursey Ad)' Full Page Ad
Featuering Nurse Noemi about to give a
a REALLY big shot to Robert. As a little
trivia, this was the only ad art we've done
ever to be censored by NewType USA. |
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'Ronin Densetsu (Tea Ceremony Ad)' Full
Page Ad w/ Noemi & Robert the Ronin
who must kill her master out of duty to his clan,
even though it will mean his end as well... |
'A Night Not to Remember' Full Page Ad
Featuring St. Noemi trying to 'unwedge'
Robert the Elf from the Chimney. Not
an easy task by any means...
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Anime Corner Art Works - What's the Story?
The art we create for each advertisement is not just a pretty face, there is a full blown story and theme behind each one, and we find it necessary to write a unique story line for each work to help in it's creation. Most of this only we get to see, but as an example, the story synopsis behind the
Horror of Macabre Manor art went like this: The story is that Jun (member of IBEU - International Biohazard Extermination Unit) and Noemi (RTO - Rescue Task Operations) have been assigned a mission to rescue one of their missing comrades. The trail of clues lead them to the creepy infamous Macabre Manor - a top secret location used for bizarre biohazard / torture experiments, housing mutant monsters and re-animated corpses. Unfortunately for the girls, they are left stranded. Luckily the girls brought their own toys and are ready to pump zombie butt full of lead... The
Shotoken Arts art has the following story: After visiting Yukiko at her karate training dojo one day, Noemi develops a tiny crush on the school instructor and decides to join
the program. However, Miyu, the most accomplished student at the school feels that Noemi is trying to invade on her territory (she
too has a crush on the instructor for years). Mysteriously after a few weeks Miyu vanishes.
A month later she resurfaces in a martial arts tournament sporting a rival school's gi challenging Noemi to a duel. Noemi who's only
had several weeks to train will have to give the fight of her life to defend her school's
honour, earn her belt and win the heart of her instructor (though in the end, Noemi and Miyu both discover that he is either married or gay :)
If we want to make it a serious story, the instructor would turn out to be some villain mastermind and have Noemi and Miyu both
team up to kick his butt :) When there is a story behind the art, it brings the very best work possible to life. And it helps the girls strike the right pose for the art...not that Noemi has ever had a problem with that of course....
Anime Corner Ad Development - Concept to Reality
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| Original
Concept Sketch |
Finished
FC Drawing |
Addition
of BG Element |
Completed
Ad Art |
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Original Anime Corner Store print artwork first goes thru a short
screening process where we toss around ideas for the upcoming ad. Once
we decide on a theme and back story, we will sometimes create a *very* preliminary
sketch just to get a general idea on how the ad will look. The artwork
is then created either from scratch or the preliminary sketch, using a
vector application similar to Adobe Illustrator. Because of the amount
of precision involved with vector graphics, a mouse is used as opposed
to a drawing tablet.
Once the main artwork for the ad is complete which can take anywhere
from 2-3 weeks, we piece together the ad elements (ie. RACS logo, icons,
credit card bar, etc...) and then finalize the work by exporting to the
proper print formats (such as CMYK TIFF for the color separations).
Because the main artwork is scalable to any size without loss in
quality, the RACS print ads can appear as sharp and clean as their
digital counterparts.
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Investor
Relations
The Anime Corner
Store®, a division of Brown Technology Group, Inc. is a privately held company
and does not currently trade stock publicly. Please direct any inquiries about
the Anime Corner Store® regarding partnership or licensing opportunities to info@animecorner.com.
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